Take your guess when next expansion will be out.

[Ranualf]

No problem Jas

The healing IS a bit daunting to begin with, but have a half decent tank, and dps who know how to use their CC button, and it`ll be fairly smooth.
But like i said in my review, some of the boss fights are bloody scary! Soo much movement, do this, stand there, do that, the skill level bar has been raised a fair bit, but i suspect once players get geared, then it will be smoother.

That said, some of the trash packs are insane if you fail to control them, evil ogre caster in the Slagmines, have a 1 shot spell called Stone fist- it`ll hit you for your life + 70k, meaning either silence, interrupt/stun of take a bit smack in the face. Of course treat is, if the healer gets decked- its all fun and games .

The imp packs in Auchindoon are fun, they run about, with zero threat, and if they get near you- well they set you on fire & disorientate you, of course they patrol in pack, and there`s also the humanoids who cross patrol, so you need to be aware of their patrol paths...

But the dungeons are damn good fun- UBRS is changed, and is still slightly too long to make it comfortable, but the fights are fun.
But like i said in my review- Blizzard have made loads of fights with tons of AOE mechanics- make sure you have some form of speed boost ability- I have +60% move rate in ghost wolf.

I`ve just managed to upgrade my garrison today (was bugged) and there quests, and more missions for your followers (meaning you get mats to upgrade + produce stuff), exactly how big a part of the game the garrisons will play, we do not know yet. But the general feeling is, that you will need to invest "some time" to make it worth while as a player.

Dungeon list so far

Auchindoun- an intact version of the dranai, it looks a lot like the Mechinar (remember that place) and is pretty cool

Slagmines- looks like its inside Blackrock mountain, big fat ogres, slaves and LOTS of fire (FUN FUN FUN)

Grim Rail Dept A unique dungeon- you on a moving train (yes you can fall / be knocked off- BEWARE) tightly packed spaces, mixed mobs, requiring thought and liberal CC to manage- also quick reaction to not be killed by the boss mechanics- tough and fun.

Irondocks Not implemented - yet, although i think i stumbled across the location while out exploring- basically far north of nether storm- and no, it looks completely different- nearly all of the content does- not been to nagrand yet- 98+

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds I am in awe of this place, damn hard, much needed CC, and interrupts to control the fight- get it wrong, your dead pretty fast, Love it- the boss fights are insane, and tough, rewarding to succeed- a lot like the shadow lads of BC- hard and fun, not yet fully competed, due to several server restarts, will attempt today.

Skyreach A short vertical dungeon, yes, thats correct, vertical... you have to fight your way up the arrakota spire. Hard LOS pulls, and punishing of you mess it up :ranting2: The wind bridge of death is also fun, players without a 50%+ speed boost will struggle to get past..open eyes wide, and look for hints (no i`m not telling you haw to do it). Fun instance, tough boss fights (lvl 103)

The Everbloom No yet implemented.

UBRS Yes its been reused, and basically the same layout. Mobs are roughly similar to vanilla, melee, casters and summoners (CC req) Some fun moments when the tank gets airborn and lands in the egg room (yes knockback), last boss is great fun, and a pain if you get targeted and cornered by the flames- expect to die :devil:


Not too many spoilers, but I am enjoying it, as are a vast amount of the other players, everything seems good (except you cant port EU character atm) so i`ve had to roll a new char (start at lvl 90) some new quests were put into the blasted lands, which are pretty easy- as the item squish is not implimented in that zone, so running about at lvl 94 meant i was basically 1 shotting everything as a Elemental shaman.


Well worth the look- once its released.

[Ranualf]

Blizz kindly updated the garrison yesterday, TY

I have built a few things on the "empty plots"
Basically you have three sizes of plots, Small, Medium and of course Large

There is the obvious restriction to the amount of each type you can build in you "home garrison"

Each new "house" has benefits, buff and other abilities.
Take for instance the mine, it provides you with the ability to "mine" ore each day (even if your not a miner) and generate some money off the retail value of the ore. It also allows you to refine the "draenite mineral", which is basically a new in game coin, as to what it is used for remains unknown, except i need 25 of the stuff- it has a chance to proc when you dig in your mine.

Other things like the tannery, Jc booth, Alchemy lab, etc enable you to "produce work orders", this in effect allows an additional use of your daily ability for your crafts. I`m a LW so i can make an additional hide per day, handy! Upgrade it, and you get to make 2, and it gets better! At level 3 you can have upto +5 work orders, thus enabling you to make 6 items per day- awesome news for crafters!

Like i initially stated, i suspected that the garrisons would play a fairly big role in the game, and it looks like they are going to be great fun!
More news on garrison here http://wowpedia.org/Garrison

There are loads of other buildings, that all give good stuff, but i think most will opt for a war mill, as this gives an increase chance of item proc from quest rewards..
What this means is, do a quest and get a green reward item(chest, neck, etc etc) and it has a x% chance to upgrade to a blue item!
Get a blue reward item, and it has a x% chance to upgrade to a EPIC

Which means people will do more quest in order to get blues, epics - cool idea, and yes it works!

So far loads of people have got blues, and epics from each zone, making dungeons and overall questing easier.

Cool bugs

The shadowmoon burial grounds is still a over tuned with the demon (3rd boss) still ridiculously over tuned, and spewing out far too much aoe damage for healers to cope with (aka we all died quickly)
I completed Auchindoun the other day- cool instance, with some very flame land like boss mechanics, however it is still a little bugged as the 3rd boss summons "worms" and instead we got a load of lvl 103 elite spiders.. hmm not exactly how its supposed to be...no.
Also the root mechanic of the fight is currently broken, and players still slide to the boss during inhale... really really bad for melee classes- kinda insta kill :/

The flying bats have a patrol path issue- aka flying through the ground and surprising the party with their sudden appearance!
This and others make testing a "joy to behold"... aka we will be glad when they fix it!

Stay frosty!

[JonnyAppleSeed]

Yup fully interested now in WoD ..... running through new stuff that is a challenge will be sweet :yahoo:  and we can abuse ambers knowledge for the other stuff

 

Also im claiming a release date .... my winged monkeys have returned with news........ Oct 14th prove me wrong Blizz (Many bothans died to get this information)

[Switchback]

Yup fully interested now in WoD ..... running through new stuff that is a challenge will be sweet :yahoo:  and we can abuse ambers knowledge for the other stuff

 

Also im claiming a release date .... my winged monkeys have returned with news........ Oct 14th prove me wrong Blizz (Many bothans died to get this information)

I'll have a pint on it Jas that it wont be out then....

I can buy you that pint at the LAN

[Switchback]

err what I meant was you can buy me that pint

[JonnyAppleSeed]

Ill enjoy that pint as I lvl up at the lan :beer:

[BrotherTobious]

Ill enjoy that pint as I lvl up at the lan :beer:

You better get signed up to it then mate

[Switchback]

Ill enjoy that pint as I lvl up at the lan :beer:

That sounds like a good plan !

You better get signed up to it then mate

What the boss said ^^ sign up....I have and I tried to write it really small so no-one would notice

[Ranualf]

:crying: Sadly i wont be at the lan, as i get back from honeymoon a few days before it, yes thats right i got married :flirty::flirty::flirty:

It`ll also mean i`ll be totally worn out from the jet lag (going to Florida for 21 days), and be totally zoned for a few days afterwards.:lightbulb::lightbulb::lightbulb:

On the wow news front

Blizz opened up a new dungeon - Everbloom a few days ago, and i managed to find 4 other fools to go along with (beta nutters FTW) level 100+ dungeon (mobs 103+)

Basically its an "outdoor" instance, which means you can use your mounts - yea repair mount:woot2:... much needed...:crying:

The openness of the dungeon means you have a choice of what to kill 1st.. there are 5 bosses, but in realality, you can skip 2 and go straight for the kill.

1st boss - left side- Pools of life- we didn't attempt, as we know it still to be bugged

1st boss Right- Verdant grove

Three ancient protectors
Basically a Evil melee, Healer, and a (dps) Buffer and they share the same hp pool.

Tactics- basically have your tank take on the evil melee dude (and yes it hits bloody hard- suspect to tuned down somewhat) and stick him off to the left side- this gives the party some room (you will need it).
Position the party central (it a round grove- so no corners to hide in), and nuke the life out of the healer, interrupt its casts- or it will HEAL ALL OF THEM for 10% life(yes it spams this spell) and also cast a rapid regen spell- improves regen by +xx% amount (really bad if it gets cast).

Just go all out on the healer, and watch for the evil melee one running out to smack you in the face- basically it drops aggro off the tank, runs out and beats you to death- usually 3-4 hits and you pushing up daisies.. yes it HURTS!:ranting2:

Stick to the plan, nuke, nuke nuke, and interpret = win
PS, dispel / purge buffs on the melee + healer- we ignored the buffer completly

Boss 2 Xer`tacs grove

This boss is very reminiscent of the spider room in Ice crown (you know the one before Cindagosa), crossed with the spider boss from the flame lands (party up / party down)

The boss itself is a big spider (Nerubian in looks) with adds in the mix.
Adds are hard mobs, that need to be taken care of (aoe + DD) consiting of melee spiders, spitter spiders and a PALE - think of the pale as something out of the Descent(the film) wow lore says its a orc, thats.. well not green, its white, and looks like a ghoul.. not a bad description.
http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/d/the-descent-20051.jpg

The Pale must die ASAP- or the boss eats it- om nom nom, and heals itself for 25% hp- yes thats a HUGE chunk of hp, bare in mind that you nave NO MANA REGEN MECHANICS
We had a monk tank, monk healer (breathing on mana fumes) my ele shammy, a lock and a warrior. Vgood mix.

we all stood on the "bone island" and waited for the mobs to spawn (rush more like) with the tank in front, facing the "door" (aka cave entrance)
We mixed up the aoe+ direct damage on the mobs to break them down somewhat, then aoe nuked them off at <50%, During which time the Pale spawns- MARK IT, KILL IT!

Healing note- there is MASSES of party damage, and you will run out of mana quick if you start "quick heals", use some aoe+ smart heals to get through, that said it took us 5 attempts to deck it! Awesome fight, great fun, some moving to avoid the acid spit, many many adds, and the pale is an elite- currently!

3rd (4th) boss The Violet Bluff
A single lone female page stands in your way.. easy.. hmm kind of..

She has three schools of magic - fire, ice, arcane - we suspect it is random at what she starts at (we 1 shotted her) but the others in the party said that she started with ice/ arc before- and kicked their asses.
Her rotation is 3 "hard casts" (none interruptible) with the rest being able to be stopped- NOTE the longer she is allowed to cast spell from that school of magic, the harder it hits, and the spell will gain other abilities - Fire ball becomes an aoe- then a aoe with a pulsing aoe effect- an aoe that then stays on the ground so long as she is casting "fire". We allowed here to go to "7 stacks" before stopping her with fire.

Our view is that fire is the weakest, with frost being a pain in the ass (snare/ freeze) and arcane the deadliest- damage ramps up quick.

I think after 3 or more interrupts she will change school of magic, and rotate accordingly - Fire- Ice- Arcane

Last boss

This fight was a great deal of fun, as none of us had done it before- NOOBS FTW!

Note The fight starts as soon as someone steps through the portal! So make sure you all ready- and mounted up- seconds count!

Think of the area as a cul-de-sac and your there- a ==0 shape.
Boss runs in and starts attacking the Kirintor? mages - you need to keep these alive- you need their dps!

Its a fairly straight forward fight, but you need to be situationally aware of the boss mechanics (sorry melee you going to get hurt)
Its a tank and spank fight initially, until his hp/ time elapsed  
Abilities
Shockwave- this hits hard(aka it 1 shotted the warrior dps) and stuns you- closer you are = more damage + longer stun- PAY ATTENTION as it will turn to face a random member and BOOM!
Tangle He will "root" one of the npc mages - kill the root- free the mage- dps boss, and aoe adds- repeat many times.
Singularity ~i think- something like that - Basically he will "channel a spell for 15 secs".
NOTE At the start of this spell he will throw out spores (they look like flowers on the floor)- make sure everyone runs over them- STOP DPS to do this as once he has finished the "cast" every spore still alive spawns into an add, this will be along with 3-4 other adds that you cant stop him summoning!

This means you have the potential to have the BOSS+ 3-4 or 18-19 adds, if you fluff it up!
This means you need to keep the npc mages alive (yes you can heal them) keep the tangle off them, avoid the shock wave, pew pew boss, stomp the flowers or get ZERG RUSHED BY THE ADDS!

Overall i found this to be a challenging dungeon, and really enjoyed it- note we are in testing, so many changes can be made- also we were "Buffed" up to item level 600 in each slot (meaning epics lose 40 levels as they are 640 i level), but also means your 500 itel level becomes a 600... the scaling on this works great- and makes the MC event look to be great fun!

[BrotherTobious]

:crying: Sadly i wont be at the lan, as i get back from honeymoon a few days before it, yes thats right i got married :flirty::flirty::flirty:

It`ll also mean i`ll be totally worn out from the jet lag (going to Florida for 21 days), and be totally zoned for a few days afterwards.:lightbulb::lightbulb::lightbulb:

We all Due respect my dear friend I also will be arriving back from across the pond, a few days and have also arranging a night out in the big smoke as well, so dont come on the thursday sleep, come on the Friday and have some fun. Would be great to see you mate

[TeaLeaf]

:crying: Sadly i wont be at the lan, as i get back from honeymoon a few days before it, yes thats right i got married :flirty::flirty::flirty:

Many congratulations to you both! :cheers::dmw:

[BrotherTobious]

Dont I look the asshole..... speed reading is not a good thing.  I applogise for missing that very important details

Congratualtions guys wish you all the best for your new future together

[Ranualf]

No worries Toby, we know what you are like

And thanks to all who have said Grats!

Have fun at the Lan, as we`ll not be able to make it- remember to keep switch chained up... you all know what happened last time!

[Michelanio]

The cinematic for warlords of draenor is now out and with it comes a release date!

Remember to watch to the very end for the release date!

[video=youtube;TLzhlsEFcVQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLzhlsEFcVQ[/video]

[Switchback]

Oi Amber !

:taz:

So Jas that's a pint you owe me